The Benshi-Japanese Silent Film Narrators

A shortish book (really, more of a longish pamphlet) about Japanese film narrators. They were one of the most powerful unions in the country, and staved off the advent and wide adoption of “talkies” until nearly the 1940s (the silent era lasted longer in Japan than, I believe, anywhere else). Really fascinating stuff. The book is light on essays about the art and craft and heavy on biographical information about silent films, the benshi themselves, and even silent-film movie theaters. Probably could have done without the catalogue of films, and yet those sorts of lists are indispensable for a historian. A good little book, all in all.